The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1887-05-27
HYROPHOBIA.
AN EMINENT SPECIALIST on
THE DREADED DISEASE.
He Says Many Reputed Cases OF
Rabies are Spurious-No Genu-
inc Case of the Disease in
America in Two Years

DR.. Edward C. Spitzka, the well-known
New York alienist, has lively article IN
the Forum on the The Hydrophobia
Buc-bear.r While not disputing the
existence of rabies in mar, he shows that
study of the disease is made difficult by
vague. conflicting ard unreliable symp-
toms. As to its presence in dogs, he
saws much of the observation Is made
Through optics disturbed by fear, and
bv persons who are incompetent TO de-
scribe and interpret what they see The
best authorities to-day incline TO regard
the maiorities of cases of reputed rabies
in man as spurious. Patients may suffer
from any one of large number from all
ments, producing symptoms similar to
those attributed to hydrophobia. Terror,
superstition, popular alarm and other
influences affecting ignorant minds may
produce an epidemic of nervous disorders
marked by the manifestations mistakenly
supposed to emanate from attacks Of
rabies. The extent TO which erroneous
notions may prevail is thus illustrated
/ by DR.. Spitzka;
From the fifteenth century, when Alsatian
sFolysss E---i on all fours, bowling and tea
ing children to pieces, insisting that their
limbs he Topped of in order TO convince 9TH
ersf that the wolfish fur grew inward from
their skins, down to the present day, when
those dreading hydrophobia bark like dogs,
new like cats, and are thrown into convul-
sions at the sight Of water, the records Of by
trophohia are replete TO overfiowing with
delusion, superstition, hysterie and uncon-
scious stimulation. The tragi-comical case of
q number OF persons dying in the sixteenth
century after having eaten of a pig that had
been bitten by dog, Ihich in its turn had
been bitten by another and rabid one, found
its counterpart few weeks ago in Russia,
where medical ed TO :, afollOwer of Pasteur,
uggested the treating of number Of persons
the Pasteur Institute, at Odessa, for no
better reason than that they had pa-taken of
milk from a COW bitten by rabid dog. That
writer not alone Out-Pasteured Pasteur, but
also emulatad the solicitude of the German
count who in an antique folio figures an ap-
paratus for restraining rabid persons 1t
consists of an iron cage, an oil-cloth vesture,
handouts and mask with eye glasses, like
divers head-gear The object of this was to
protect the attendants against the exhala-
tons Of rabid virus supposed to eman1te
from the body Even at this day cases of
epileptic, alcoholic and trsumatic delirium are
reported as rabies, and, if they happen to Co
inside with a scare" contribute to the in
tensifcation and prolongation of public
alarm.
Numerous instances are specified with
crisp comments indicating the slight
foundation on which rests the prevailing
apprehension regarding the danger of
hydrophObia. Scores of observations
might be added continues the doctor,
''all tending to prove that during the
past two years there has been no reported
case of rabies in man in this country
which could not be referred to an error
of observation. Before scientific tests
all the newspaper alarms are shown to
have been either fabrications, exaggera-
tons or mistakes" His investigations
include much wider range, however,
and have been pursued in other countries,
with results practically the same ''Mean-
WHILE continues DIR. Spitzka, I'VE may
console ourselves with the reflection that
rabies in man is rare disease in the
United States, and that 40 demonstrated
epidemic affecting the human species
has occurred within the past fifteen
years. Notwithstanding every effort
made by the writer 10 secure the OBJ
servation of a case of rabies in man
or in the dog, not a single opportunity
has offered itself during the last eight
years, and in New York but one dog
potent authority since the d5g-D5unU
there has been opened"
OF course, DR.. Spifzka's views are di-
ametrically opposed to those of Pasteur
and his disciples and supporters, and the
American specialist deals some hard
blows at the French experimentalist, re-
ferring to numerous cases which Illustrate
either the fallscy of Pasteur's tn eories or
the ineffectiveness of his methods. The
most direct hit consists N these passages:
''Pasteur institutes had begun to grow up
in various parts of the globe. In New
York the death of Pasteur Institute was
almost simultaneous with its birth" This
is held to demonstrate that practical
Americans attach no Importance to Pas
tours alleged discoveries, and is pretty
substantial testimoney to that effect.
Summing up, DIR. Spitzka concludes as
follows:
"0n eliminating the cases of spurious and
designated rabies from the NOR
tuary tables, the number of rial cases re-
manning will be found so small that the entire
SUBJECT OF the prevention and treatment OF
rabies in man viii seem an insignificant prob
lem as compared with that relating to the
part borne by domestic animalsin conveying
the eontagion of measles, diphtberia and scar
let fever, the deaths from which diseases in
any given day exceed hundredfold whole
years mortality through rabies
These are facts and OPT MONS which if
widely disseminated should result in
greatly allaying the popular dread of by
drophobia. Nevertheless, it is well to be
on the side of prudence, and DR.. Spitzka
himself urges the muzzling of dogs and
such other precautions as will not only
prevent but as far as possible exterminate
rabies in the canine woTld.-Troy Times.